Chapter 57 A Little Boy

The door of the wooden cabin was locked!

“By the urgent decree!” With a thought, Mie Ying cast an immortal spell, striking the door with her palm, but it did not budge. She exclaimed, “It’s sealed by an immortal spell—no, it must be locked by your magic!”

Hua Sheng gripped his golden cudgel tightly and warned, “I just figured out why the other side went to such lengths. They sent Jian alone to knock on the door just to guard against this cabin. Only now has the trap’s designer synchronized our movements!”

He pointed to the wooden walls around them. “Their purpose was to lure the three of us, originally separated, into the cabin all at once.”

Jian’s expression grew grave. “It seems we’ve been locked inside this prison…”

Before Jian could finish the word “prison,” he suddenly staggered, took a few steps backward, and collapsed unconscious.

Seeing this, Hua Sheng swung his golden cudgel to smash the window, but he too suddenly felt dizzy as the world spun around him.

“This is bad! There’s… there’s some kind of mind-altering… in the air…”

He braced himself on the ground with the cudgel, but his vision darkened, and his limbs grew weak.

As he fell, he saw Mie Ying lean forward, then transform: green hair, the second sister, swaying unsteadily; then red hair, the third sister; black straight hair, the sixth sister; glasses, the ninth sister—all showing signs of dizziness. Even the fifth sister with pink hair, clutching a toy bear, stood stunned.

The little fifth sister of Mie Ying, seeing Hua Sheng and Jian collapse, stomped her feet in panic, shouting, “Wh-what’s wrong with you two? Help! Somebody help!”

“Little Five… you must run…” Hua Sheng managed with his last strength to say, but he completely forgot that Little Five barely knew any immortal magic—how could she possibly escape?

Hua Sheng plunged into darkness, losing consciousness.

After an unknown length of time, he vaguely regained some awareness, but he was far from fully awake. The only proof he was still alive was the splitting headache pounding in his skull.

In his shallow consciousness, his body felt unbearably heavy and aching. But what troubled him was not the pain—it was the strange heaviness.

Because this feeling was both familiar and foreign.

Since studying immortal arts at the Saint Pingning Academy of Magical Arts, Hua Sheng’s body had become increasingly light. Even without spells, climbing walls and leaping across rooftops was no challenge.

But now, his body felt heavy again.

He hadn’t experienced this sensation in a long time; the weight reminded him of the nightmare-ridden Saint Pingning Hospital.

This heaviness was far more terrifying than pain.

In the pitch-black before his eyes, colorful hallucinations began appearing. Dark light started to corrode his consciousness, or perhaps he was withdrawing from it.

Hua Sheng struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt weighted with lead.

His body was immobile.

Suddenly, Hua Sheng realized he was tied to a stool, his limbs bound with hemp rope, his mouth sealed with tape.

His heart raced wildly. He didn’t understand why he was so terrified. Having faced life-and-death moments before, he should have remained calm.

Yet he couldn’t calm his pounding heart, which felt as if it would burst from his throat or chest.

His gaze focused, and amidst the haze, he noticed an unfamiliar man wearing a white mask pacing back and forth before him.

Hua Sheng had never seen this man. The man was walking impatiently in front of him.

He turned his aching neck to look around—still inside the wooden cabin.

Nearby stood a full-length glass mirror reflecting his image.

When he glimpsed his reflection, Hua Sheng was stunned with horror.

For a moment, he saw in the mirror the face of a boy no older than ten!

The child’s immature face was bruised and battered, a hemp rope tied tightly around his neck with a purple-red mark.

The bloodstain must have been caused by the rope’s strangling.

It seemed the boy had just been choked unconscious and had only recently regained consciousness.

Hua Sheng saw pure terror in the child’s eyes, tears streaming down his damp cheeks.

He didn’t understand what had happened. Earlier, he had clearly been rendered unconscious by some mind-altering spell—so why had his consciousness been transferred into the body of a helpless child?

He tried desperately to make a sound from his throat but only managed a faint, hoarse whimper without any clear message.

At that moment, the wooden door opened, and a woman wearing a black mask entered.

The woman with the black mask said coldly, “That man couldn’t hold out; he’s confessed. The safe’s combination is 99, 12, 48. You go try it.”

Upon hearing this, the white-masked man’s eyes lit up with wild joy, and he immediately moved to a corner of the room.

Hua Sheng saw that the wooden panel on the wall had just been pried open, wood shavings scattered across the floor. Behind the panel was an old-fashioned dark green safe.

The safe was small and seemed deliberately hidden there for some time, which was why the wooden panel sealed it.

“99, 12, 48…”

The white-masked man muttered hoarsely while turning the safe’s dial.

Click! The lock on the safe opened.

“The combination was right! It’s open!” The white-masked man was ecstatic, almost dancing with joy.

The woman in the black mask said coldly, “His wife, children, and his own life are all in others’ hands. Of course, he wouldn’t dare lie.”

With the grinding of metal, the heavy door of the safe swung open.

Inside were piles of thick files, stacks of documents.

The white-masked man began pulling out the files. Hua Sheng saw among the papers not only loose sheets but also several thick black hardcover notebooks, a hard drive, and some old-fashioned discs.

Just as the white-masked man wanted to browse through them, the black-masked woman stopped him.

“Don’t look! The boss will kill you! You know, old…”

“I just want to confirm we didn’t grab the wrong materials!”

“Take everything back then!” The woman pulled a large suitcase from a nearby wardrobe stuffed full of clothes and tossed it to the man.

He efficiently unzipped the bag and stuffed all the items inside until the safe was empty.

“We have what we need. What now?”

“Leave!”

The two swiftly exited the room carrying the suitcase.

Seeing them leave without looking back, Hua Sheng felt a flicker of relief. He began struggling to free himself to find out what was really happening.

Unexpectedly, the black-masked woman returned, with the man following closely behind.

Hua Sheng’s heart, which had been wildly pounding, suddenly stopped. He felt his blood reverse flow, his face turning pale.

The woman approached him and crouched down.

A sharp wave of dread surged through Hua Sheng’s heart! He stared at the black mask before him, his body trembling uncontrollably.

There was no emotion in her eyes as she stared at Hua Sheng and slowly said:

“Little one, do you want to live? Then you must…”

At that moment, the scene before Hua Sheng’s eyes shattered like torn paper scattering everywhere.

A fierce pain exploded in his mind. It was as if a stick had struck the back of his head—no, like a bomb detonating inside his brain, blowing his skull to pieces.

Accompanied by a hazy consciousness, Hua Sheng bowed his head and began murmuring:

“Father… Mother…”